Being a gold medalist is a journey. Especially when it comes in a way of a historic win. Lydia Ko first won a silver in the 2016 Rio Olympics, then a bronze in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, and now at the Paris Olympics she is taking back a gold. With this, she became the only golfer to win all three medals and to have what some people are calling an Olympic Slam. However, there is one less family member who will celebrate her victory for the second time.

Just a week before her 2020 Tokyo Olympics, Lydia Ko lost her grandmother. With grief and a heavy heart, she had descended on the greens and lost in a play-off against Mone Inami. Nonetheless, she got a bronze. Back then, her situation was tangled in such bittersweet circumstances that even her tears were in a conundrum. She confessed that she played for her grandmother. And hence, the bronze medal is something to be extremely proud of. Yet, Ko did not have her grandma to celebrate with.

According to NBC Sports, Lydia Ko had revealed her reason for playing in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. She confessed with a broken heart, “I just wanted to make our family really proud and our country proud, and to be able to win a medal for them means so much to everyone who has been on this journey with me. This has been for my grandmother.”

Back then, Lydia Ko had also hinted at how she might have wished for a different color of the medal, but she was content with the outcome. She changed her fate this time around. She has finally claimed the gold she wanted last time. Although her grandmother is no longer with her, she must be proud of her achievement.

Lydia Ko had a special tribute given to her grandmother. The South Korean-born golfer from New Zealand traveled to Jeju Island to pay her respect.

Lydia Ko’s ultimate tribute to her grandmother

When she first won an Olympic medal at the 2016 Rio Olympics, Lydia Ko lost sight of it soon after. The silver medal is somewhere in her dad’s closet. The second time, when she won the bronze at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, it traveled quite a few miles to Seoul and then to Jeju Island, where Ko’s grandmother rested in peace.

According to the Otago Daily Times, Im Ho-Bin, Lydia Ko’s grandmother, was 91 years old when she died. She has been brought up during hard times. And even during her death, the COVID-19 protocols were at hand. Which did not let Lydia Ko meet her the whole year. However, when Ko won, her bronze medal traveled with her sister, Sura, and that too for a very special reason. Sura was in quarantine at that time, and when she was out of it, she took the precious bronze to her grandmother’s grave. At the moment, the bronze is still with Sura, her elder sister.

However, Lydia Ko has mentioned before that if she wins the gold medal, she will definitely get back the rest and try to present all three together. Now that she has won the gold, you might see her sharing photos of such an exhibition soon enough.